Co-founder and Farm owner

Héctor grew up in the concrete jungle of Guatemala city, but his mother was born and raised near where the farm is now. In 2012 he had the opportunity to buy a farm in the region so he took it, but unfortunately the land that was once a paradise had become more like a desert than he remembered.

Héctor is a creative and innovative businessman, he works in his family's pharmaceutical company pharmalat and has his own branch PS pharmer. The company focuses on curing the root of illness rather than treating the symptoms, they have a growing department in bio pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals, these products help the bodies natural defence mechanisms heal illness.

In 2019 Héctor finished a new product, made from a tree called cualote that grows wild on the farm, the product Estavir is a powerful anti viral medicine that hit the market just before covid began, and was a sell out during the pandemic, and the income from this product provided the funding to start his dream for the farm.

Héctor's dream was Proyecto Paraíso, because he wanted to create a paradise on the land, a place of peace and harmony, where wild animals could find safety and a home, where nature could be allowed to blossom into its highest expression of beauty, where people would be treated with dignity and where children could play. He wanted a place he could retreat to and leave for his own children to enjoy, most of all he wanted to give something back to the nature and fulfil his responsibility as the lands guardian.

Co-founder, designer and Director

Cat is from England, she grew up in the countryside and has a life-long affinity with animals and plants, she worked as a farmer and then later graduated as a biologist, then found her passion in gardening, creating wildlife habitats, growing food, medicine, creating water landscapes, permaculture design systems and philosophy.

She had been travelling for 10 years living in various countries working and studying in her fields of interest, but longed for her own farm and a place to call home. Somewhere where she could watch the trees she had planted mature and really get to know a land and the processes it goes through whilst regenerating. She wanted to put permaculture to the test and see if regenerating very degraded lands was really possible with these techniques. But this was impossible to know without staying somewhere a long time.

Guatemala had welcomed her before and she had worked for some years on a project in lake Atitlan. In 2019 a mutual friend introduced her to Héctor, she trusted and liked him immediately and a friendship was formed, they wrote up a contract to share the farm as a business venture.

Catherine found the farm incredibly challenging in the beginning and perhaps would have quit if it wasn't for the pandemic lockdown, after a while of being locked down on the farm she saw how nature responded to her actions. Héctor was of huge support as were the local farm workers, so it wasn't long before she was inspired to keep going, she formed a relationship to the land and an unshakable bond was formed.

So many people have contributed to Proyecto Paraíso since the beginning 2019, they protect the land and the animals that live there, they have plant thousands of trees, installed irrigation systems, created hundreds of tons of compost, managed farm animals, restored the houses, helped build a mushroom lab, made gardens, cooked us delicious meals, cleaned, dug ponds, created fertilisers, and have helped in all kinds of wonderful experiments and innovations, some that have failed some that have been successful, they've worked in the rain, the mud and the burning sun to contribute to a dream for a very unique farm.

These workers have mostly come and gone as farm workers often do, but some have stayed and their contribution has been enormous and continues to be so as their skills and knowledge grow with time, Proyecto Paraíso wouldn't be possible without them and we continue to grow together along with the trees and plants.

VIEW GALLERY